Halima Aden on her new life & why Gigi and Bella are her 'catwalk fairy god sisters'

Unless you’ve been living under an internet free rock, you’ll definitely have heard about Muslim model Halima Aden by now. The 19-year-old Somali-American made headlines last November after becoming the first hijab wearing contestant in the Miss Minnesota USA beauty pageant.

Since then, she's been busy breaking barriers in the fashion industry by landing a contract with world famous modelling agency, IMG, and making her runway debuts at major New York and Milan AW17 fashion week shows including Kanye West's Yeezy Season 5, Max Mara and Alberta Feretti.

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Halima is fast becoming the new face of a more diverse and progressive fashion industry, and last month during her trip to London for the International Somali Awards 2017, she opened up to GLAMOUR about her rollercoaster journey to overnight fame – something she seems yet to have wrapped her own head around...

“Right after the pageant, my cousin sent me a screenshot and was like ‘omg girl, there are pages of news about you on Google’ and I was like eeek that’s crazy!” she recalled as she sat down with GLAMOUR's Sagal Mohammed. “A lot has changed in my life - obviously I never had all of these opportunities before. But I’m still very much grounded, now more than ever.”

Halima, who was born in a Kenyan refugee camp but raised in St. Cloud, Minnesota, explained that she'd never envisioned a modelling career for herself before, mainly because she hadn’t seen anyone like her in the fashion world: “I never saw a girl wearing a hijab walking the runways or on magazine covers, and in a way that’s our own fault [as well as the industry’s]. No one really puts themselves out there. I know I wouldn’t have but because of the pageant it just all kind of worked out really well.”

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The new model admitted that she entered the pageant because she wanted to find out how her community would react. “It’s a good platform and it celebrates women from all over Minnesota,” she said. “I know that for me, a lot of people will look at me and they’ll think ‘Somali’ or ‘outsider’ instead of Minnesota. So I wanted to kind of challenge myself and challenge my community to find out, ‘what would the people of Minnesota say about this?’ It was really something new because I didn’t know what the reaction would be.”

Never did she imagine that the next day, she’d receive a call from fashion icon and editor of CR Fashion Book, Carine Roitfeld asking her to be on the cover of the magazine. Roitfield took Halima under her wing and even made her debut runway appearance happen when she put her in contact with Kanye West for his Yeezy Season 5 show back in February.

Reflecting on her first runway experience, Halima said: “My heart was literally about to explode – there were so many people. And on top of that, everyone was taking pictures and filming videos so I was thinking I better not trip. I know all the biggest supermodels have had their moments [falling over] but I wasn’t about to have all the angry Somali sisters like ‘girl, you were supposed to represent us and then you face plant, break a neck, break a nose and ruin your career in the first month’ that would have been funny.”

“You’d think someone as big as Gigi wouldn’t have time to tell me how it all works but she was giving me advice and telling me things I wouldn’t even think to ask about because I was so star struck – I was literally fangirling,” she recalled of their first encounter.

“There’s a picture on Instagram where I’m next to Gigi and I’m doing the weirdest thing with my arms [laughs]. Remind me if I’m ever around Gigi Hadid to pay attention to my body movements because I promise, I don’t look that ridiculous in real life.”

And that she's right about. When we met her at the International Somali Awards, Halima stunned in a bespoke red ball gown by up and coming fashion label Buno Designs matched with a cream coloured hijab.

Like many others in Minnesota (there's a large Somali community there), Halima was raised in a traditionally Somali household by her mother, who on the topic of boys, has a very strict view. So when asked how she would deal with dating rumours (let’s face it, they’re inevitable once you’re in the public eye) the young model said her mum would be right on it...

“My mom will shut down those rumours real quick,” she laughed. “She will hold a press conference in Somali and she will shut it all down, I’m not even kidding. She’d be like ‘Halima no dates, no boy, haram, haram, haram’ [haram means it’s a sin]”

Halima’s honesty didn’t stop there. The star was refreshingly candid about her lack of fashion knowledge, saying: "to be honest, before I joined the industry I knew very little about the fashion world and I hardly knew any name brands."

"Probably because the price tags were a little too high and home girl needed to work," she laughed - we're so with her on that one.

"But honestly, I never knew designers before this and now I see that what they do is really art," she continued. "Some of the stuff that they make isn’t every day wear but you appreciate it – it’s kind of like when you go to a museum or a gallery, it’s so different from our regular pictures at home but still it’s beautiful."

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She has a point. And we don't doubt that her appreciation for fashion will evolve as her career flourishes. We've got high hopes for you, Halima!

Click below to see what all of fashion's it-girls looked like before they were famous...